I haven't heard of a one-man Mars mission.... but I have read several things (in all seriousness) about a manned one-way Mars mission! Here is a link to one plan...

http://alum.mit.edu/ne/whatmatters/200402/index.html[/url]

There was another plan by Paul Davies for a one-way Mars mission... but I can't find the link to his proposal right now.

(Ed. to remove wrong article).

In reference to your item #4... here's something from 1960. There was a TV show that tried to "accurately" portray man going into space and to the moon. Here's the lead actor of that series showing he has the right stuff as a macho astronaut... Well... it was 1960, after all. Guess no "lighting up" on Titan. ('Course there always is niccotine gum)

What's that in your "Swear Jar", Lyford? Blueberries?

Hey, how about a "mystery man" standing down on the floor among the dunes. The floor seems so close from here, but I'm sure it quite a ways...

Horton, that's a great image. It reminds me of this pic that NASA has used at times on NASA-TV and at places on its web site. I always thought "Yeah, right. Like they'll really have a suited Mars astronaut repelling down a cliff." But now that I see these bluffs...

Does anyone know the dates when solar conjunction will cause comm outage? Is there a chance that could happen before we get to the edge of Victoria and get a good look? Don't know how much her flash can store, but it would seem good to have Oppy at a good viewing vantage point beforehand, and have an extended automated Pancam survey set of instructions while we're out of comm, so they'd be waiting on the other side of the sun outage.

This pic just made me realize something... here we are on the Victoria annulus, and look at all the blueberries. Does that mean the apron and Victoria also were at the bottom of the sea that created the evaporate? I didn't think blueberries were that easily transported by wind... let alone be so evenly and thickly distributed as out on the duned plains. I guess I always thought Victoria was formed after the sea, otherwise, wouldn't it have been sedimented and filled in.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...9FP2376L4M1.JPG

Yep... Clyde Tombaugh discovered it in 1930 from Arizona. Throughout the 1920's, there had been a lot of hype in the U.S. public print media about "the search for Planet X". It was suspected because of supposed perturbations seen in Neptune's orbit that another outer planet should exist. Clyde knew after the discovery that it could not have been the Planet X they were looking for... it was too small to be responsible for the Neptune perturbations. (which later observations resolved away any large discrepancies in Neptune's orbit, so in fact, they were searching in vain).

Actually, the only people with any justifiable emotional connection with Pluto and its status should probably be Percival Lowell (of the infamous "canals on Mars" ordeal), Clyde Tombaugh, and perhaps, Walt Disney ... and I doubt right now that they care. The true person who pushed for the search was Percival Lowell, who employed Clyde at his observatory near Flagstaff, AZ for the main purpose of searching for "Planet X".

If there hadn't been all the hoopla of "looking for Planet X" and the "name the new planet" hype afterward... the 1930 discovery would probably have been barely noticed except for a mention of "asteriod found on the edge of the solar system in highly inclined orbit". But, as it was, with all the hype, Percival Lowell got his claim to fame... since the selection of the winning name of Pluto officially has as its symbol an overlapping "PL"... his initials!

Wasn't there supposed to be a certain point where the terrain begins to slope to the south and there was to be a "hell of a view" of the plains (and Victoria) spread out in view before us? Where was this to occur in relation to where Oppy currently is? Or am I recalling something else?

Uh Oh! Must be all those accumulating Monoliths are beginning to have their affect. Just remember the warning: "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA, ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE".

Here's what it'll look like by "2010"

New Titan raw images starting to appear. Lots of details...

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=64404

Ed: Sorry... didn't see this was already posted.

Cthulhu? You mean FSM. The vid shows us touched by his noodly appendage.

Yes, indeed.

Reminds me of the old Star Trek "Planet Killer" episode.



A more recent TV example, the SciFi channel series from a couple of years ago, Lexx... about a huge dragonfly-looking ship that blew up planets and "fed" on the biological debris and water. The show was pretty bizarre, mainly about the wacky passengers. I didn't watch it often, but when the series ended after a few years, I saw the final episodes where Lexx was stranded in the Solar System, too low on power (i.e., hungry) to escape... so it blew up and ate the earth!

Seeing that reentry capsule on the ground with all the guys around it in heavy coats (looking like hazmat suits), it reminded me of the Andromeda Strain.

Why is the lower right corner of the first original image blanked out? Did it have the date? Yes, key questions: where and when.

For those with some patience, a sharp X-acto knife, and some Elmer's glue, here's a nice paper MER model:

 MER.pdf ( 655.93K ) Number of downloads: 1182

Here's an example from about 15 years ago on some educational deficiencies (or worse):

In my previous job, I was sort of a liason between the sciences and insurance companies... providing pertinent research and information on meteorology and geology (i.e., hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc). I used to give talks about this at insurance trade seminars. As is typical, I'd open with describing my background and a little joke: My undergraduate degree was in physics and astronomy... but I "came down to earth" and got my masters in meteorology.

Some middle aged woman in the front row, wearing a smart gray business suit... she might have been an executive secretary, a middle manager, or actuary for all I know... asked me: "Does your astrology background help you in your forecasts?" Not sure what she meant, I said that... well, a lot of the physics, math and planetary science in astronomy was applicable in earth science. She replied... "No, I mean did your background in astrology ... forecasting the future by the stars, help in your weather forecasts?"

I could hear some chuckles in the audience... and I didn't really want to embarrass her, so I just said something like.. "If I could really forecast that well, I wouldn't be here." Well, I guess most newspapers do have daily horoscopes.


Similar to the previous post on someone not knowing that stars are "suns": My father was not well educated. Once, as a kid (probably in the mid 1960's), we were watching on TV the old 1950's classic movie "When Worlds Collide". Near then end, when the star Zyra collides with and destroys the earth... he said "Isn't that a bit far fetched: stars are tiny, and fall to the earth as shooting stars." When I said "Gee, Dad, stars are like the sun... some much bigger. Don't you KNOW that!" He seemed quite taken aback and embarrassed by that.

For someone not into science, I could easily see with our educational program here in the U.S. how this fact could be overlooked or forgotten. Especially for those who were not interested, and just sort of slept through 7th grade science (which was the last time in grades K-12 that we dealt with astronomy in my school system).

I saw that show last night on the Science Channel too. I recall several times I thought I saw Jason: A scene of two or three people standing, but by the time I realized it might be Jason, the camera moved and all there was of him was just a small portion of glasses and hair edging into the screen. During the lengthy interview with Elizabeth Turtle in the foreground, I thought it was Jason sitting in the background at a large CRT, facing away from the camera most of the time... but every now and then he would look to the left (toward another monitor?), and it seemed like him. I didn't notice someone else sitting there... they may have been off camera to the left (behind Elizabeth).

Too bad I didn't realize it was this show... I could have taped it and provided some screen shots. Next time, Jason, you'll have to do the interview!

Gee, I always liked Percival Lowell's view:



Dig those canals. And this final view:

Yet another really nice "close encounter" sequence between two moons seen by Cassini:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=55879

I don't have the capability of creating an animated gif... but if anyone is up to it, it should be a good one.

Yes, I suggest reading the last 15-20 pages of the "What's up with Hayabusa?" topic. That Nov 24-25-26 thread of the final sampling attempt... with the bizarre automated translations, the running gag on accumulating Lipovan-D bottles, our own discovery about what Lipovan-D was, the possibility that the JAXA blogger was reading this forum and reacting to our comments, and our new members from Japan helping pass info and translate the official statements, etc. It was really an incredible, engaging all-nighter watching all that occurring! The suspense, the hilarity, the wonder!

-RedSky

I also started watching it on my local cable which has NASA select. I really was dumbfounded by the streaming webcast quality, esp in the poor audio. Then, when the tech at his laptop running the slides couldn't start the mpeg animation of huygens 2 minutes into the press conference, and it took 5 minutes just to fiddle around to get the images up, I thought... ugh! Very amateurish... how High School. Sad to say, but public opinion does depend on how organized you seem, especially in the simple things. It's not like this was a hastily put together conference.... like what might be expected on the day of the landing. This conference was planned for some time, and should have been better organized.

One other thing I noticed. Maybe its just me, but the presenters really didn't seem all that excited. They just sort of matter of fact read their powerpoint bullets. I've seen some of the driest, esoteric stuff presented at some NASA conferences, but because of the presenter's excitement about the results, you sort of felt they really were important. Here, it just seemed like a board room conference, with each member giving his little bit. It seemed too much like a job for them... they just didn't seem to have the passion. Or maybe its just my impression.. different cultures, etc.
I finally stopped watching after a half hour, so maybe things picked up later on.

I dunno.... most of the controllers seem to have left their terminals on the live feed....
and the body language of those left doesn't seem too excited. Hope things are OK...

OK, OK. They must be reading UnmannedSpaceflight.com... and just put out all those Lipovitan D bottles just as a joke to see if we notice!